From the time of the dinosaurs to today's age of genetically engineered vegetables, the humble ginkgo tree has tethered itself to planet Earth and refused to let go.

Now, it has an Ivy League ally in Peter Crane, dean of Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Crane has written a new book, "Ginkgo," on the unlikely history of the 200 million-year-old plant.

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"Once someone shows you a ginkgo leaf, you never forget it," Crane says, summoning the easy enthusiasm of a master botanist discussing his favorite flora. "It's just a beautifully elegant thing, and it crops up all over the place. It's an amazing story."

Here's the abridged version.

Fossil evidence of ginkgoes dates back to the days when dinosaurs walked the Earth. The ginkgo was the same then as it is now: Tall and rangy, with those distinctive, fan-shaped leaves.

Not only did it thrive, but it managed to survive whatever wiped out Tyrannosaurus rex and company. It also weathered an ice age, tucked safely into secluded valleys in China.

That's when mankind stepped in and found them to be fabulous.

"I tend to think of it as a tree that people have saved," Crane said. "It would have gone extinct if we hadn't seen it as a useful, interesting tree."

In many Eastern cultures, the ginkgo carries religious significance -- particularly in Buddhism. Also, for centuries, the Chinese ate roasted ginkgo seeds and used ginkgoes to produce oil. In China, it is called silver apricot.

The tree has entranced great writers, from Goethe to Conan Doyle; it famously endured great fires in the American South during the Civil War; there are documented cases of ginkgoes close to the epicenter of the atomic blast at Hiroshima that grew new leaves the following summer.

Today, the ginkgo is a popular American street tree. It's also found in every corner pharmacy, thanks to its popularity as a memory-enhancing drug. There's even a Ginkgo Museum in Weimar, Germany.

In his book, published this month by Yale University Press, Crane delves into all aspects of the tree, from its history and biology to its use in gardens and pharmacies.

Actually, the tree seems to have followed Crane around the world as he worked on his book. He started the project when he was director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in England, where a majestic, 18th century ginkgo greeted him each time he walked out his front door; years later, while teaching in Seoul, South Korea, ginkgoes met him on every avenue; in New Haven, it turned up everywhere from the garden of the Yale president's house to the iconic "The Age of Reptiles" mural at the Peabody Museum.

"There it is, right behind the Tyrannosaurus," Crane said, pointing to a corner of the mural in the Peabody's Great Hall of Dinosaurs. He nodded to the dinosaur exhibits around the room.

"A lot of these guys were contemporaries of the ginkgo," he added.

After a quick stroll to a nearby lab at the Environmental Science Center, Crane rolled up his sleeves and examined half a dozen ginkgo fossils. One is from Yorkshire, in England, and others are from North Dakota and Oregon.

"This one is from just before dinosaurs went extinct," he said, picking up one of the North Dakota specimens. "It's easy to take things such as this for granted, but there's a sense of wonder about this. My guess would be, if we could go back and walk under the leaves of this fossil, we'd recognize it as very similar to the one across the street from this building."